1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the art of mementos and physical objects that are emblematic and reminiscent of an individual's attendance at an event or location of significance, including souvenirs, memorabilia, remembrances, totems, keepsakes, and the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to the special events, group entertainment, and meeting industries, where the professional meeting-planners who organize and orchestrate such events can utilize customized embodiments of the invention to enhance the experience of participants and establish favorable impressions and recollections in the minds of attendees, which in turn benefit the hosts and sponsors of such events.
Mementos, souvenirs, keepsakes and the like are well known in commerce and are widely available in settings where businesses serve the tourist trade. While the disclosed invention has general applicability in the tourism industry, its principal application is perceived to be in the segment of the special-events market served by professionals known as “meeting planners”. Such professionals—acting as on-staff corporate employees of the event sponsors, as on-staff corporate employees of the host venue, or as independent consultants—organize and orchestrate special events such as seminars, conventions, training sessions, business meetings, golf outings, concerts, theatrical productions, spectator sport events, participatory sporting events, vacation travel tours, incentive travel trips, casino visits, ocean cruises, festivals, reunions, weddings, parties, and similar events with the objective of making the experience pleasant and memorable for the attendees in order to establish good will in the minds of the attendees towards the event sponsor.
One aspect of the meeting and special event industry that has experienced a dramatic increase in sophistication in recent years is the development of custom graphics. This is attributable in part to the advances in computer technology that have enabled professional publishers of books, magazines, videos and other media to create and distribute high-quality and specifically-customized graphics at a greatly reduced cost, compared to prior methodologies. This has increased consumer expectation for these types of graphics. Also, personal computer and inkjet printer technology has made relatively sophisticated graphic capabilities available to the mass market in real time.
As a result, with regard to mementos, people have come to expect short-lead-time and even real-time personalization and customization of mementos that contain high-quality graphic images, but are nevertheless priced economically. The specified invention uniquely satisfies those market demands. Items suitable for manufacture using this method include name badges, key fobs, luggage tags, golf bag tags, ticket-stub savers, photo frames, signs, displays, award plaques, and similar items, particularly those that are intended to create a favorable impression in the minds of participants in special events such as those described above.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The term “memento” is used herein to refer to devices such as: souvenirs, keepsakes, remembrances, emblems, name badges, key fobs, plaques, awards, signs, displays, golf bag tags, luggage tags, photo frames, memorabilia, collectible preservation/display cases, or the like.
Typically, mementos do not serve any utilitarian function. Conversely, name badges—especially the “temporary” and disposable badges typically used at meetings and special events—usually serve a utilitarian function, but are not valued by those who wear the badges as desirable mementos of the occasion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,173,514, (the '514 patent) discloses name badges produced by using a small printer which prints typographical graphics on the adhesive side of a transparent pressure-sensitive adhesive tape. These name badges do not, and are not intended to, display high quality full-color/full-bleed graphic images by utilizing the herein-described face-mounting and laser-cutting processes. The badge production techniques described in the '514 patent require users to have access to a specialized printer capable of printing graphics on the adhesive side of a self-adhering transparent tape.
Further, the name badges described in the '514 patent are in the nature of “permanent” or re-usable name badges, described in contradistinction to temporary name badges or “name tags.” Commercial custom and practice dictate that permanent and re-usable name badges are purchased only for an organization's personnel who regularly deal with an ever-changing consumer clientele. Such personnel have an ongoing need for indicia of personal identification, and a re-usable name badge that costs 10 to 50 times the cost of a temporary name tag can make economic sense only if it is re-used 10 to 50 times more than a temporary, disposable name tag. Also, permanent and re-usable name badges generally are more attractive in appearance than temporary name tags—and thus create a more favorable impression on an organization's consumer clientele—because such badges are made of more durable materials and are made using more sophisticated manufacturing techniques that are not usually cost-justified for temporary applications.
With respect to mementos used as display plaques, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,902 (the '902 patent), which describes a display plaque comprised of a back plate which serves as a substrate for two or more integrated workpieces, at least one of which is transparent and one of which is opaque, the two of which workpieces coincide and are joined along at least one side. The display plaque disclosed in the '902 patent is characteristic of all other plaques and signs described in the prior art where the personalization of the plaque is accomplished by engraving, painting, or silkscreening the front-facing or outward-facing surface of an opaque material or by attaching one or more previously engraved, painted or silkscreened member(s) to the front-facing or outward-facing surface of such plaque.
While the plaque of the '902 patent describes the inclusion of indicia at the rear surface of the transparent workpiece member, it does not contemplate face-mounting lamination. The inventors now realize that face-mounting lamination would be desirable because it permits an aperture to be cut in the full-color graphic itself (as well as through the entire laminated face-piece) prior to the attachment of the face-piece to a backplate. The resulting aperture could provide a location within the display plaque of the precise size and shape of a standard adhesive-backed label. The plaque therefore could be customized or personalized in real time by the end-user employing an ordinary computer printer, without need to resort to the difficult and expensive engraving, painting and/or silkscreen methods described in the '902 patent.
Reference also is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,691 (the '691 patent), which describes a trophy plaque that includes a recess suitable for the insertion of an adhesive-backed label with alphanumeric or graphic indicia, and a corresponding press-fitted lens. The methodology of forming the trophy plaque disclosed does not contemplate the integration of the label into an acrylic surface defined by a full-color/full-bleed face-mounted graphic image. More specifically, while the '691 patent describes a press-fitted decorative member as one element of the trophy plaque, it contemplates a standard decorative surround in the nature of a “picture frame molding” to enhance the visual importance of the graphic insert, as opposed to physical totems of remembrance and/or physical memorabilia.
In this connection, reference is also made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,619 (the '619 patent), which describes a protective case for collectible sports cards. The '619 patent describes a method for encapsulating a printed item of memorabilia within transparent acrylic for purposes of preservation and display. However, the '619 patent, and similar products disclosed in the prior art do not integrate the collectible sports card or other printed totem of remembrance into a display plaque that enhances the appearance of the sports card or totem by surrounding it with a related full-color/full-bleed graphic image.
One primary shortcoming common to all mementos disclosed in prior art is the lack of any inexpensive, yet visually attractive, method for personalizing mementos with the name of the purchaser or recipient. The various means of personalizing characteristic of previous mementos as disclosed in the prior art are: (i) engraving; (ii) attaching an embossed adhesive label to the surface of the item; or (iii) attaching a regular adhesive label to the surface of the item. With regard to these means of personalizing, engraving is an expensive technique, suitable primarily to metal or wooden products and surface-mounted labels are unattractive and are associated in the minds of consumers with “cheap” merchandise. Also, no previous mementos have utilized an optically-clear lens to “encapsulate” a label, protecting it from possible damage and adding vibrance and luster to the label.
Another primary short-coming common to all name-badges as disclosed in the prior art is that the badges either are inexpensive “temporary” badges printed on paper (sometimes inserted into a thin plastic “jacket” with a “safety-pin” finding) or paper backed with pressure-sensitive adhesive; or they are “permanent” badges (such as those used to identify food-service waiters and waitresses) to be used by the same person repeatedly on multiple occasions. Temporary badges could be printed with graphic images because they were printed on paper; but permanent badges could be enhanced at best with a simple logotype of one or two colors, with no photographic range of colors, because the enhancement was produced using engraving or silkscreening technologies.